Debt
by Nagia
Summary: [SIV] A collection of mostly-unrelated short stories focusing on the pirates.
1. Short Story List

**Debt:**

**Short Story List**

_Debt_ — Hervey and Dario allow Kika to be injured. Considering that the hard tasks always fall to the competent men, it looks like Sigurd's in for a rough night.

_The Battle They Couldn't Win _— Hervey and Sigurd fight when they discover something about each other.


	2. Short Story One DEBT

_All characters and concepts belong to Konami. No ownership claimed, no money made, no copyright infringement intended._

**Debt**

Sigurd made sure to keep his face calm as he breezed through Kika's room like a gray whirlwind. Inside, he was shaking, but he didn't dare show it. He wanted to go out and throttle Hervey and Dario for being a pair of damned idiots, but he couldn't do that, either.

So he settled on searching through Kika's room, "accidentally" glimpsing some of her unmentionables on a quest for bandages and ointments.

Why did she have to hide her medical supplies and leave her plunder in plain view? Where was the sense in that? Medical supplies needed to be kept in places with easy access; stolen articles needed to be difficult to find unless you knew what you were doing. Basic laws of the dangerous trade known as "piracy".

At length, he found the sack of bandages and a case of ointments. He slung the sack over one shoulder and held the case to his side with an elbow, then strode from the room, shouldering his way through the heavy curtains separating her quarters from the rest of the cave.

"You found it?" Hervey asked.

Sigurd couldn't help but notice that Hervey's face was pale.

_Good,_ Sigurd thought. _Serves the idiot right. What the hell was he THINKING, letting Dario pick a fight with them!_

"Yeah, I found it," he muttered. "Everybody, step back and let her get some air." He pointed at a table close by. "You, clear off. I need space to work."

Something in his voice drove the pirates (and their food) away from the table, scurrying the way mice did when you set fire to their tails.

"You, put her on the table," he pointed to the pirates with her in their arms. "And get me a lantern."

The underlings deposited Kika on the table.

"Hervey, strip her to the waist and lift her torso. I need to wrap her ribs."

Hervey nearly objected. Sigurd looked him in the eyes and watched Hervey swallow the lump in his throat.

Hervey did as Sigurd bade, and Sigurd began to wrap cloth around Kika's ribs. He pulled tightly where needed, resisting the less appropriate urges to take a little advantage.

If he'd been in Middleport's fleet still, there would have been no reason to resist. Times like these, where he tried to repay Kika for all she'd done for him, always made him look back on what he'd been. Looking back was no time of pleasant nostalgia- the man he'd been seven years earlier made him feel sick to his stomach.

He tied off the ends of the bandages and helped Hervey dress her again. After that, he and Hervey carried her into her room.

He brushed the curtains hiding her bed aside and tucked her in. If his hand lingered for just a little while on that red-gold hair... Well. No matter.

And if he paused for just a little too long in closing the curtains, that wasn't anything, either. Just making sure her breathing was alright, that he hadn't tied the bandages too tightly.

And so what if Hervey had seen? Hervey couldn't say anything- Sigurd owed Kika far more than Hervey owed her, and Hervey was obviously head over heels in love with her. Orphen had come up to him with one of Hervey's comments.

_We agreed to work with you, but the deal's off if anything bad happens to Lady Kika._

"You too, huh?" Hervey asked, grinning stupidly, as he pried Dario's tankard out of slack hands.

Sigurd remained silent. This was one of those times where you kept your own counsel. He owed that much to Kika, not to complicate things for her... And to his pride.


	3. Short Story Two THE BATTLE THEY COULDN'T...

**Debt**

**Short Story Two: ****The Battle They Couldn't Win**

He had made the mistake of falling in love with a piratess.

Really. He should have known better.

So he stared down at her sleeping form, watching her rest, searching her breathing for any sign of pain.

Kika was no fun to be around when she was in pain.

Memories of the time after Edgar's death, when Kika sought solace from heartbreak, flooded back.

For the first time ever, Edgar had failed to keep a promise, and Brandeau turned away. Pirates kept no secrets from each other. Everyone had seen her pain.

They followed her regardless.

Her crew, Brandeau's crew, Dario's crew— all of them, down to the last man, would have followed her beneath the waves.

Her Kicked Dogs would lay down their lives for her. She had never asked it, and they all pretended she never would.

But it would come, one day, the battle they couldn't win, the ship they couldn't rob, the brush with the law they couldn't escape.

The death he had been running from for seven years.

His hand reached out almost automatically, feeling her forehead for heat.

Her breathing hitched.

He pulled his hand back, retreated from the room.

Now wasn't the time. He had to launch the _Grishend_ the next day. And in order to do that, he needed rest. As he slipped out of her room in the bar, the room she had inherited from Edgar, he couldn't help but question the wisdom of her decision.

She was still injured. How could she expect to pillage the remains of Cray Trading Company if she couldn't fight in top form? Cray's company guarded its ships well. You had to cripple them, then board them. You couldn't recover cargo from a ship on the ocean floor, and why use up Rune Cannon ammunition otherwise?

There would never be any more ammunition. They needed to conserve what they had.

He paused at the mouth of the cave. Wendy was still cleaning up the bar. He considered helping her, but soon decided against it. Dario could help her while he, Hervey and Kika were at sea.

With Nalleo there to ensure that Dario didn't act like himself, or at least record it when Dario did.

With that thought, he move don from the cave. After a brief row to the other part of the Island, he managed to find the cave where he, Hervey and Dario kept their quarters.

Hervey alone sat awake. He stared into the light of a single candle.

The fire reflected ominously in Hervey's eyes, and Sigurd found it every bit as disturbing as the he had the fist time he had seen Hervey near fire.

Fire helped him, Sigurd knew. Sigurd had seen the calm on Hervey's face when he had seen his first candle. Sigurd had watched Hervey's thrashings still when Kika lit a candle.

"Checking on her?" Hervey asked.

Sigurd nodded.

"I don't like the thought of her fighting Cray's people with broken ribs."

"Then you shouldn't have let her take that blow in the first place."

"Like I could have stopped her from boarding?"

"No, but you couldn't have taken that blow for her."

"That's what _you_ do."

It was true. He _did_ take injuries for her.

But he owed it to her to insure that she bore no injuries.

"What I do is not the matter at hand— it's what _you_ did _not_ do."

"Don't condescend me. I'm not a child."

"You're the reason we're Kika's Kicked Dogs. Act like one of us and admit you should have taken the blow."

"But then I wouldn't be able to perform the duties to which you're going to set me tomorrow. I can't do anything right, can I?"

Sigurd snorted. "There you go— making this about you."

"It was ALREADY about me! What is your PROBLEM?"

And this, Sigurd reflected, was why you didn't allow exact equals near the top of the chain of command.

"Hervey, you're going to wake Dario and Nalleo."

"WILL YOU NEVER CEASE?"

"SHUT UP OVER THERE!" Dario roared. "NALLEO'S TRYING TO SLEEP!"

Nalleo was a shipboy; he and Hervey were First and Second Mate. Nalleo could just deal with it. They needed to settle this.

But they could do it somewhere else.

Sigurd grabbed Hervey's arm and dragged him from the cave.

"Stop that!" Hervey jerked away. "What gives you the right—"

"—I've _been_ here longer than you, that's what! I got kicked first!"

Hervey snorted at him.

They said nothing, only stared at each other in the moonlight.

Hervey hissed, "I hate you right now."

"I know." Unsaid between them lay the words, 'I understand.'

Hervey sighed, ran a hand through his hair, looking at everything but Sigurd.

At length, Hervey surged forwards, his hands gripping Sigurd's shoulders.

"Are you in love with her?" He asked, yanking on Sigurd's shoulders to force him to look Hervey in the eye.

Sigurd looked away. He just couldn't look at the other Kicked Dog.

"You are, aren't you?"

Sigurd said nothing, and Hervey backed away. There was silence between them.

And then Hervey MOVED. He took the few steps between them.

"YOU BASTARD!" He cried. His fist swung out, striking Sigurd's jaw. "Why can't you let me have anything! What, are we joined at the hip?"

Sigurd said nothing— what did you say to that? It didn't even make sense.

"Don't tell me…" He said at length. "Say nothing. I wish to—

"I love her too."

Sigurd rubbed his jaw where Hervey had struck him.

"No. I REFUSE to share her with you. We share too much as it is. I _refuse_ to share her with you!"

"And am I to give her up?"

She was his favorite drug. He needed to be near her. She was like air to him.

Hervey looked away. "I can't ask that of you. I can't give that to you."

"We're at an impasse, then."

"Yeah."

There was silence between them, silence again, crashing down like a weight on his ears.

This was damned stupid. He was going to lose one of his best friends, perhaps his _best_ friend, over a woman?

A woman to whom he happened to owe his life.

_When did the world get complicated?_ He wondered.

Three years earlier, he would have chosen Kika hands-down. Now, however, he felt trapped. How did you choose? He couldn't just give Kika over to Hervey. He couldn't leave her side.

But did somebody like him deserve her?

This was a conundrum.

_What do I do?_

The next morning, they set sail.

_end_


End file.
